A New Year Festival
by Ejes
Summary: She was supposed to have fun. She was wearing a cute kimono and had planned to eat as much as she could before the New Year. But when she realizes she is still regarded as a child, Kagura is more hurt than she'd expect. And it would take a Sadist to cheer up another Sadist... One Shot, New Year Fic


_**Hey guyyys~* Happy New year to all! Hope you had a wonderful christmas. 2016 might not have been the best year due to a lot of different reasons so let's all pray 2017 is a far better year. Have a New Year OkiKagu fic as my last fic of the year~  
Disclaimer: Don't own Gintama, haha**_

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December 31st. In Japan, there is a tradition where on the first day of the year, people should go to the temple and pray. And, of course, stalls selling food are settling down next to shrines and temples and are making a lot of money.

When Kagura heard of it, of course she mostly remembered about the free food. Otae kept blabbering about how she should lend her a yukata and make her even cuter because hell, if you started the year being the prettiest girl in town that could only be a good omen, but Kagura was drooling thinking of takoyaki and ramen and everything else she would eat.

She however let her _anego_ take care of her, she chose herself a yukata and then sat down while the older girl put her some make up on, take care of her hair and whatever else.

"Gin-chan, you sure you're not coming?"

"Ah, don't mind me, I'll join you later, but I definitely want to watch the end of this show!"

He waved them goodbye, still lying on the sofa, and Shinpachi, Otae and Kagura were off.

The festival was really crowded. It was merely 11pm and there were people literally everywhere. It almost looked like a summer festival, despite the cold wind.

"Oh, Otae-san, you look as beautiful as ev‑"

"Look, look, Kagura-chan! Do you want one of those cute masks? Let's have a closer look!"

Otae took Kagura's hand and moved toward the masks seller. Shinpachi spared a pitying look to Kondo, who was frozen by the shock of being ignored, before joining his sister.

"Kondo-san, what are you doing standing there? You're blocking the way."

"Have a little compassion, Hijikata-san. Do you know how painful it is to have your heart crushed like that? Oh, I can show you, don't move, I'll get a stake."

"What the hell would _you_ know about heart being crushed? You just want to stab me, you little bastard!"

Back at Kagura, she was now enjoying a really hot takoyaki, careful not to put any sauce on her outfit. Kyuubei had joined them and was talking with Otae and Shinpachi a few steps ahead. Behind her, she heard some guys rating girls. She laughed. Men were pigs.

"What about the one in the blue yukata? Man, she's hot!"

"I don't know, I mean, she's really flat... But what about the cutie she's talking to?"

"Well, she's cute but don't you think that despite the yukata, she looks really... manly or something?"

Kagura snarled. If only Otae and Kyuubei had heard that, those guys would already be dead.

For a while, they reviewed other girls that were around. But never rated her. It shouldn't have mattered – really, that was really filthy anyway – but her pride was a bit hurt.

"Then there's this one, in the yellow yukata... But she doesn't really count, right?"

She was the only one wearing a yellow yukata. It was patterned with really cute pink rabbits face on it. She had loved it at first sight. But why wouldn't she count? She kept on eavesdropping.

"Well, I would feel bad rating her, you know? I mean, what's with that outfit? It's something my little sister would wear, but she's 5!"

"I know, right? And have you seen her face? She's barely even cute. She looks like a baby or something. Those red hair look terrible. And she's even flatter than a boy! I've met girls with no sex-appeal, but she's clearly a no-no."

Kagura had come for the free food. She had not cared at all about looking pretty. She chose the yukata because it was cute and she liked cute things. Heck, she never cared about what people thought about her! So why was her food so tasteless now? Why were her eyes starting to burn?

Was it because Otae had repeated her so much she would turn every boy's head that she had started to believe it? Or was it because of that really scary thing Gin-chan had warned her about, _puberty,_ making her self-aware? Until then, she never thought of boys as anything else than beings with a weak point to kick between their legs. But maybe she started to actually care about what other people thought of her? _Am I becoming so weak?_

"Anego, I have to go to the bathroom. Don't wait for me, I'll meet you guys later!"

Before Otae had time to notice something was wrong, Kagura left them, half running. What Otae saw, and Kagura did not, was the shadow behind a group of three teenagers, taking them down one by one. But as soon as Otae saw who the shadow was, she stopped paying any attention to that.

Kagura ran and ran. She ended up behind the temple, surprisingly empty, and she sat there, letting the tears roam freely. Twenty minutes later, she was empty of all tears, of all emotion. She did not want to go back. She wanted to go home. She wanted her blanket. It was cold anyway, and she had lost her shoe while running, and there was earth on the yukata, and her hair was disheveled, there was no way she could show up like this. But again, why did she care about how she looked like?

"Hey, Cinderella, I think this is yours."

She raised her eyes to see her rival, Okita Sougo, standing in front of her, holding out her shoe.

"It is. Give it back." Her voice was small and weak. She hated it. She hated what she was becoming.

She half expected him to throw the shoe at her face and watched in shock as he kneeled to put it back on her feet.

"Wha-What do you think you're doing, Sadist?"

"From what I heard, it's not easy to move with a yukata. I wouldn't want you to make a wrong move and have your flat chest flashing at me."

She thought of what the other boys said earlier. Looks like she wasn't running out of tears, actually. She looked away and blinked, trying to chase the water away.

"So are you really going to let some random assholes' ruin your mood and your night?"

She gasped. How did he know?

"Let's just say I've got a good information breaker. And you know, your friends are looking for you. To think they'd send me, though..."

Kagura looked at him.

"Could you just leave me alone for tonight? Go back to them and tell them I got home. I'm not feeling well anyway. I'd like to be on my own for a while."

He sighed. "If I do that they'll probably all kill me, China. Tell them yourself. Come on, get up!"

He held out his hand. She hesitated. But seeing him not moving anyway, she took the hand and he helped her up.

"Your hand is frozen, stupid. How cold are you? Here. Take that."

He took his coat off and threw it on her shoulders.

"Uh? Why would I want your coat? It's so filthy and stinky and I'm sure I'm going to die!"

But she did not take it off anyway. As they walked back among the crowd, looking for their friends, he spoke in a very quiet voice.

"And no matter what those bastards might have said, you look really good."

But as she wanted to ask him to say it again, certain she misheard him, his soft smile turned into a smirk as he showed her something.

"There they are! Hey, I found her! She got lost or something, I don't know, I don't really care!"

"Kagura-chan! We were so worried about you! Are you alright? Oh, your yukata is all dirty, did you trip? Have this horrible sadist done things to you you'd like to report to an officer?"

"Oi, just how much trust do you have in me? I'm a Sadist, not a wacko!"

Kagura buried her face into Otae's yukata, and the young woman closed her arms around her, mouthing a _Thank you_ to the flaxen-haired man.

"My, my, have I missed something?" A lazy voice grew closer, and emerging from the crowd, Gin was yawning and looking at them.

"It looks like Otae-san is open for hugs!"

"Silence, you gorilla! I should be the one to hug her." Kyuubei and Kondo started to fight, under Hijikata's unfazed eyes.

"What are you saying, Gin-san? I'm pretty sure I saw you earlier..."

"You must have mistaken me for someone else. Right, Souichirou-kun?"

"It's Sougo. But you're right, I haven't seen you around. You must have dreamt it."

Otae looked at Gin's hands, slightly bruised as if he had punched someone. But she also saw the way Okita was looking at Kagura, and thought that maybe letting him be the only hero wasn't a bad thing.

"It's almost midnight! Kagura-chan, it's time to go and pray! What are you going to wish for for this year?"

"Tons of food!"

Everyone sighed. That was pretty expected of her. She slowed down to walk next to Okita.

"Is there anything particular a Sadist like you could wish for this year?"

"Oh, there's something I want."

"What could that be? A whip?"

He smirked.

"I'm looking at that thing right now."

Glares were exchanged among the rest of the group. Looked like he had decided to be a little more straightforward this year.

"What? But you're looking at me... Oh wait. Heh! What kind of stupid person would waste a wish to get their coat back? You're really an idiot!"

Everyone froze, and Okita felt two hand patting his shoulders. The first one belonged to Hijikata.

"I'm sorry, Sougo. You actually know a lot about hearts being crushed. I shouldn't have doubted you."

The second one belonged to Gin.

"I'm sorry, Sofa. But know you have all my sympathy, and I wish you all the luck in the world. I'm afraid, however, that she's a lost cause."

Okita shrugged.

"Who cares? There's no need to hurry. I'll just wait for her to be ready for me."

The red head was chatting with Otae and they all thought she didn't hear. They did not see either the mischievous grin the girls shared. _Sometimes, making a guy wait for you was just so much fun._

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 ** _Damn it took me a while to decide if I added those last lines or not (ie to decide whether Kagura was really oblivious or just Queen of Sadists)  
And it actually broke my heart to break Okita's because it was way too violent even for him x'DDD_**

 ** _Feel free to leave a review, I would love it!_**


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